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UPDATE: Bungie addressed the armor's art at greater length in a Thursday post on its website that answered many of the lingering questions about the "why" and "how" of it all.

According to Bungie, the offending piece of art was created in 2015 as part of "gear foundry explorations" (which is a kind of brainstorming workshop). The art was later — it's not clear when — reviewed by a team responsible for examining in-game creations that could touch on "cultural, geographical, and other sensitive issues," but that team only noted the image's connection to an older, innocuous meme.

As the post reads: "The more contemporary, vile derivation that has been repurposed by hate groups was not surfaced through this process, and therefore, the armor was approved for ship."

Bungie claims "there was no degree of malicious intent from anyone on our team." The image is being removed because "the design in question is close enough" to imagery associated with hate, but that's it.

Personally, I still have questions that I'll try to get answered. But Bungie's parting words on the matter at least acknowledge that an explanation after the fact can be hard to buy, and words don't always cut it in a situation like this.

We aren’t asking you for the benefit of the doubt. We know we are judged by our actions. We want to thank the members of our community, and the press, for bringing this matter to our attention. We will always strive to make all players feel welcome in our worlds, to promote positive experiences, and to portray a bright and hopeful world in Destiny 2, and in every game world we create.

ORIGINAL POST:

A piece of armor in Destiny 2 bears a logo that looks suspiciously similar to a symbol associated with white nationalists (i.e. racists).

Bungie addressed the issue directly on Tuesday morning in a pair of tweets. The short version? Shit's gonna get fixed.

One note for the word nerds out there before we go any further: Bungie probably meant "denounce," not "renounce." The former is synonymous with condemn; it's a declaration that something is wrong or evil. The latter, on the other hand, means letting go of a formerly held belief or beliefs.

Since Bungie hasn't ever outwardly demonstrated a penchant for hateful sensibilities, I'm willing to chalk up the "renounce" usage as a typo.

Back to the matter at hand. The armor in question is a legendary-rarity Hunter gauntlet called Road Complex AA1. You can see the original image below; the offending symbol is visible on the upper arm.

I'm not going to get into the origins of the symbol, but you can read a detailed breakdown on the Southern Poverty Law Center's website. I will note that this image on the armor isn't an exact replica; the hate symbol has only three bars in the middle (instead of four), and there are two additional "K" formations on either side of those central bars.

Is it possible this was just a mistake and a coincidence? Sure. That said: I think it's far more likely that this was an intentional nod to a white supremacist-related symbol than not.

The resemblance is just too close, and the modern white supremacist movement often trades in misdirection and double-meanings. Framing their toxic beliefs as an ironic joke — "I'm not really racist LOL, I just like getting a rise out of people" — helps them to sidestep the "racist" label.

And yet. That's exactly what white nationalism is: a racist ideology.

All of which is to say: Bungie is right to excise this imagery from Destiny 2 quickly. But there's still the larger problem of how it found its way into the game in the first place. And, assuming it was intentional, Bungie now has to be wondering what other sly nods to hateful beliefs might be coded into the game.

For its part, the studio's only public proclamation thus far has come in the form of tweets. If I had to guess, I'd say people inside the studio are investigating this situation thoroughly before saying anything further on the matter.

To be clear: I'm not suggesting that Bungie shoulders the blame for this mistake. I sincerely believe that the studio as a whole has the best intentions, and — as the earlier tweets stated outright — is a generally progressive team. If this was intentional, it's the result of one or a small handful of bad actors, not Bungie as a whole.

Still, this story isn't over. Bungie will fix the offending art, and hopefully snuff out any other examples before they surface. But if there's an artist at the studio who subscribes to these toxic beliefs — which, as Bungie stated, "does NOT represent our values" — that's going to have to be dealt with as well.

We've reached out for more information, but it's obviously radio silence right now. Don't expect Bungie to name the artist; and if their identity does somehow come out, please do not stoop to harassment. But Destiny fans are owed further explanation here.

Like: Was the art included intentionally? What action was taken with regards to the artist or artists involved? Are there any other examples that had to be removed? And, perhaps most importantly, what steps are being taken to ensure this doesn't happen again?

We'll likely get answers to a few of those questions as Bungie susses out the facts of this situation. The imagery has already been removed from the "shared game world," and a patch next week will eradicate it completely.

This imagery has been removed from the shared game world. It will be removed from inspections and icons in a HotFix planned for next week. https://t.co/Mom6ZGiSMa

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